Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-01-13

amateurs, the mania for rare postage
stamps passes all understanding. Yet it
is capable of being explained. Lik
many other oddities and puzzling features
IN the ways Of collectors, the high price
OF certain stamps is the consequence of
! the passion for perfection. Anyone can
collect stamps-little boys and girls of
ten do. But there comes a point at which
foreign stamps and old stamps grow rare,
and more rare, and finally next to i'm
possible to procure. Here it is that the
heart of a mature collector begins to
beat. He is determined to have a per-
feet collection. Nothing shall escape
him In the way of printed franks on let
tiers. Now Observation-Disclosures of his as
sortment he can buy in the gross, without
trouble or great expense. But the last
twentieth demands personal care and at
tentlon, and the hunting up of old family
letters, and the haunting of great dealers
shops, and peeping through dirty win
doWs IN shady lines and alleys. AS he
gets nearer and nearer complete collect
on the spool grows more and more shy,
the excitement fasTer and more furious,
till finally the amateur would sell an
estate for square inch of paper, and
turn large England to a little stamp if
he had the opportunity. The fury of the
pastlme is caused by the presence of
definite limits. There is only certain
known number OF stamps in the world.
This limit makes perfection possible"
1t is not as if you we're collecting really
beautiful things like Tanagra terra-cot-
tas, Or really rare and quaint and myster-
1ous things like aggery beads. Though
Ianagra terra-cottas and aggery beads,
and fine examples of Moorish luster, or
of ancient Nankin, or of gold coins of
the Roman empire, are all rare, ct there
is no definite limit to their number.
More may turn up any day when the
p1ckax breaks into q new Tanagra ceme-
terry, when fallen palm in Ashanti brings
up aggery beads clinging to its earthly
roots, when pot Of coins is found by
some old Roman way, and so forth. To
be sure perfection may be obtained in
coin collecting, when a man has speci-
mems of all known sorts, but even then
he will pine for better specimens, for the
best specimens. In the other branches
of the sport we have mentioned the col
lector may be eager, of course, for good
things, but he can never know the passion
of the stampomaniae who has all sorts
but three, and finds these within his
reach.
Perfection is within step of such a
man, and that step we fear he will take,
even if it involves ever so many breach
es of the decalogue. In one of this
months magazines, in story called ''Mr
Pierrepoint's Repentance" Mr.. Grant
Allen tells the tale of coin collectors
infamy, and that coin collector a clergy
man and fellow of his college. pope is
said to have stolen a rare book from a
painter, and it is certain that enthusiast
tic collectors are apt to have "their moral
tone lowered some," as the American
gentleman said about the lady whom he
had Wooed with intentions less than hon
orable.
good example of the tolls of the
collector in pursuit of perfection is given
by M. Henri Beraldi in his very amusing
catalogue Of M. Pallets library. This
book, by the way, is itself scarce, and the
bibliomaniac will be rather lucky if he
meets with it. M. Beraldi describes M
Pallets copy of "Dorat's Fables" pub
lished in 1878, with illustrations by
Marillier. Nobody perhaps over reads
DOrat now, but his book came out in the
very palmiest days of the art of illustra-
ton in France. There were no photo
6
seamy processes" such as almost make
one despair of progress and of the fu-
ture of humanity. The people that takes
to processes" is lost! The illustration
of the GABLES" were duly engraved in
copper. There were ninety nine Wig
nettes, and as many tail pieces. The
photographed history of the book is in
structive, either to young collectors or to
the ord fn 70
ly-the persons who do not understand
what collectors want.
The gables" were originally publishes
on three different sorts of paper, Dutch
paper at 70 francs, French paper at 20
francs, and on "small paper" at "a francs.
In 1858 the original drawings were
bought by one of the Rothschilds for
about EGO; they would now, probably be
worth at least 81 900. The ordinary
copies of the book bring about Sc, the
large paper copies about $50, and a copy
IN old morocco can hardly be estimated
you may pay anything for it, as a copy
in old calf has sold for $24O.
Such is the natural history of a book
pretty valueless as literature, the Fables
of Dorat. In the early edition of 'sBru-
nets Manual" published in 1921, the
A1ASo paper OploS VI VIC WOrk. WITH the
engravings in the earliest state are pric-
ed at from Is to Is francs. These Wig
nettes had gone out of fashion; they have
come in again with vengeance. The
high prices $50 or e100. are merely the
beginning of what the great collectors
are ready to pay and to do and to suffer
IN the cause of Dorat. In M. Cohen's
catalogue of all these old illustrated books
special mention is made of M. Pallets
copy Of the gables" It is "a superb
example, with all the engravings printed
separately"
But M. Pallet describes this specimen
far more lovingly. All the designs are
separately printed, and, oh, joy! all have
all their margins uncut. The book
rs all that man can dream of in the
way of perfection. Cuzin did the bind
ing, in yellow morocco, fooled with roses
and butterflies.
Reader" cries NJ. Beraldi, ''if you are
not collector you can not imagine the
difficulty of getting such a copy. 1t is
the thirteenth labor of Hercules" First
you buy your text, then you must have
the separately printed feurors. These